Physics & Math, features and articles | Educational Science

May 13, 2020

What is gravity?

Gravity is one of the four fundamental forces in the universe, alongside electromagnetism and the strong and weak nuclear forces. Despite being all-pervasive and important for keeping our feet from flying off the Earth, gravity remains, in large part, a puzzle to scientists. Ancient scholars trying to describe the world...

Jun 15, 2020

Einstein's core idea about gravity just passed an extreme, whirling test in deep space

Once again, physicists have confirmed one of Albert Einstein's core ideas about gravity — this time with the help of a neutron star flashing across space. The new work makes an old idea even more certain: that heavy and light objects fall at the same rate. Einstein wasn't the first...

Sep 10, 2020

Pioneering gravity research snags $3 million physics Breakthrough Prize

A team of physicists just snared $3 million for testing the law of gravity like never before. Eric Adelberger, Jens Gundlach and Blayne Heckel won the 2021 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics for precision fundamental measurements that test our understanding of gravity, probe the nature of dark energy and establish...

Sep 14, 2020

Fate of Schrödinger's cat probably isn't in the hands of gravity, experiment finds

For the better part of a century, the world's greatest minds have struggled with the mathematical certainty that objects can be in multiple positions at the same time before something causes them to snap into place. A number of physicists have wondered if good old gravity is responsible for forcing...

Jan 13, 2021

'Bumblebee gravity' could explain why the universe is expanding so quickly

Physicists have long assumed that the universe is pretty much the same in any direction, and now they've found a new way to test that hypothesis: by examining the shadow of a black hole. If that shadow is a wee bit smaller than existing physics theories predict, it could help...

Mar 4, 2021

'Gravity portals' could morph dark matter into ordinary matter, astrophysicists propose

Astrophysicists have an idea that could help to solve two mysteries: the reason for the bizarre abundance of super-high-energy radiation shooting from the center of our galaxy and the identity of invisible stuff called dark matter that has perplexed the world since its discovery some 50 years ago. And the...

Mar 11, 2021

Physicists measure the tiniest gravitational force ever

Physicists have measured the smallest gravitational field ever recorded, in an experiment that could help in the search for a unified theory of physics. Of the four fundamental forces known to physics — the weak and strong interactions, the electromagnetic force and the gravitational force — only gravity remains unintegrated...

May 21, 2021

How a weird theory of gravity could break cause-and-effect

Astronomers have known that galaxies across the universe are behaving badly. Some are spinning too fast, while others are just way too hot and still others glommed into super structures too quickly. But they don't know why. Perhaps some new hidden particle, like dark matter, could explain the weirdness. Or...

Jul 21, 2021

Neutron star 'mountains' may be blocking our view of mysterious gravitational waves

Neutron stars are covered with mountains only fractions of a millimeter tall, new research shows, meaning these bumps are hundreds of times smaller than previous estimates had suggested. Neutron stars are compact stellar objects, similar in size to a large city with a diameter of around 6.2 miles (10 kilometers),...

Jul 27, 2021

Why does gravity pull us down and not up?

Gravity is the reason things with mass or energy are attracted to each other. It is why apples fall toward the ground and planets orbit stars. Magnets attract some types of metals, but they can also push other magnets away. So how come you feel only the pull of gravity?...

Aug 23, 2021

Traversable wormholes are possible under certain gravity conditions

Interested in scooting through a wormhole, the ultimate cheat-code through space and time? Perhaps you'd like to hop from star system to star system across the universe without breaking a sweat? But first, you'd better make sure your wormhole is traversable. Any traveler trying to cross a wormhole that does...

Sep 17, 2021

New gravitational wave detector picks up possible signal from the beginning of time

Two intriguing signals spotted in a small gravitational-wave detector could represent all kinds of exotic phenomena — from new physics to dark matter interacting with black holes to vibrations from near the beginning of the universe. But, because of the experiment's novelty, researchers are being cautious about claiming a discovery...

Nov 9, 2021

'Tsunami' of gravitational waves sets record for most ever space-time ripples detected

A record tsunami of gravitational waves — ripples in the fabric of space-time — could help to unlock the mysteries of how the universe and its stars evolved and put Einstein's theory of general relativity to the test. Scientists working at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) in the U.S....

Jan 14, 2022

China builds 'artificial moon' for gravity experiment

Chinese scientists have built an artificial moon research facility that will enable them to simulate low-gravity environments using magnetism. The facility, slated for official launch this year, will use powerful magnetic fields inside a 2-foot-diameter (60 centimeters) vacuum chamber to make gravity disappear. The scientists were inspired by an earlier...

Nov 15, 2022

Something is wrong with Einstein's theory of gravity

Everything in the universe has gravity – and feels it too. Yet this most common of all fundamental forces is also the one that presents the biggest challenges to physicists. Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity has been remarkably successful in describing the gravity of stars and planets, but it...